Mission

a) The mission of the company: Reduce CO2 emissions from transportation by shifting freight movement from trucks to waterways.
b) The mission of the software: Develop autonomous boat technologies to make waterway transportation competitive with current alternatives.

Users

a) Container ships
b) Ferries (mid-sized vessels)
c) Small vessels

The company's goal is to move cargo from trucks to boats. This shift hasn't occurred primarily due to the high crew-to-boat size ratio, making smaller boats far less competitive. For instance, crew costs account for around 6% of operational expenses on container ships, while for smaller vessels, it can exceed 50%. Moreover, for this transition to be effective, freight movement must happen in cities with waterways like NYC, San Francisco, and Boston, which are well-suited for this change.

Pain Points

a) Operating small boats on waterways is too costly, with crew expenses making up more than half of the total cost.
b) Limited visibility reduces the operational hours of vessels.
c) Vessels can only navigate waterways and cannot reach their final inland destinations.

To increase the competitiveness of waterway transportation and reduce CO2 emissions, addressing pain point A—crew costs—is the top priority.

Solutions

a) Develop autonomous systems using camera-based software.
b) Develop autonomous systems using lidar (software + hardware).
c) Design a fully autonomous and electric boat (hardware first, then software).

Considering both impact and feasibility, we selected option A. It offers the fastest path to deployment with minimal friction since most boats already have cameras, which are relatively inexpensive to install. While lidar provides better precision, it is more costly. The electric transition can be pursued once the autonomous software is in place.

Metrics + MVP

a) Number of boats using the technology
b) Number of days without incidents
c) Operational hours per day, week, and month

The MVP was tested in Zurich, Switzerland, where cameras were installed on a fisherman boat to gather data and test our systems. During this phase, we received letters of intent from ferry companies and attracted interest from venture capitalists looking to invest.